ioduanlogs | [OPEN] Ilda’s April Catch-All

Characters: Ilda, you, your bibiru, anyone!
Date: April 16th to 30th
Location: all over Aifaran
Situation: selfies, putting up advertisements for/with Yato, affinity things
Warnings/Rating: none, but will update when something comes up

A - IT’S SELFIE TIME! (open)

[ Perhaps her friends would regret encouraging her. Or even simply giving her the idea in the first place. But Ilda, barely a month in Aifaran, has decided that she has a life goal: to be queen of Xa Xa! As she’s told Bakura before, if she’s gonna be laughed at anyway, why not make money out of it and have fun at the same time?

So she’s been exploring the city, during various times of the day (and night) and in varying weather conditions, looking for interesting and unusual things and places and even people to take selfies with. Rooftops! Under bridges! Under tables! Beside a stranger’s feet for his mismatched pair of socks!

She’s not even asking permission. She just comes zooming in, a quick clickity click, then poof! Off she goes, laughing at her own selfies!

They’re not even pretty. Some of them are blurry. Most of them either have too much of her face, or too little of it. Like just her forehead. ]

B - DOUBLE TROUBLE (Meta 1, open)

[ Wait, is that Ilda again? What does she want now? Another selfie? And why can’t she use her own yimo for that?

But now that you think about it, the first Ilda actually seemed kind of... off. By Ilda standards. This one looks more like her usual self - bubbly, chatty, with no care in the world.

A wild Ilda approaches! ]

C - EXPLORADVERTISING (closed to Yato)

[ Ilda remembers what she and Yato are supposed to be doing today, but she can’t quite recall if he’d said that he would bring the posters. So she’s taken the initiative to procure some customized ones! They’re basically large printouts of a really adorable cat poster she found on Xa Xa, and she’s handwritten Yato’s name and a message on each of them.

She sticks up one on a random wall, then leans back to look at her work, quite pleased with herself. Fitting, eh? BELIEVE! IN YATO! MAKE A WISH NOW! ]

D - WILDCARD (open)
[ Hit me up at

notanybunny for a specific starter! :D ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[X can't help smiling. Ilda has that effect; as painful as recounting those memories are, she sees the good, she fixates on the good, and her excitement is near infectious.]

You don't need to apologise. The best stories are the ones you can interact with. [Juuuuust saying.] Where was I -- right, pretending to work for the villain. There was an odd thing that kept occurring in the months after that rescue. Even accounting for grief, and reason, and time, X still couldn't trust Unlucky. Even after knowing the truth, even after knowing how old he was and how hard he was fighting to try and make the world a little better for everyone living there, I still couldn't... X still couldn't. It got to a point where X realised on his own that something strange was going on, and he asked Unlucky what it was.

And, well, to make a long story short, it was still that villain. X had a name, back then, and the villain had magic that could influence everyone in that magical world through their names. Subtly, nothing grandiose or showy, but consistently. It made it hard, to trust anyone trying to tell them anything the villain didn't want them to hear.

[ It's impressive for X to be able to continue narrating even though Ilda's right in front of him, reacting very expressively to the various turn of events. There's definitely some thrill there, anticipation, a gasp every now and then at the revelations, emphatic nodding, wide eyes, and of course, confusion. ]

Wait, wait. So... X stands for something, after all? But because of the villain's magic that influences names... so you're not using the actual name? That's why it's just X?

[ Her eyes shine with curiosity, but she's frowning. ] How does that kind of magic work? If someone guesses your real name, you like, die or something? [ She's heard a bedtime story or two about that before. ]

No one remembers my real name.

[With a sad smile, and apparently abandoning all pretence of this story not being about him.]

It got... erased. From everywhere, and everyone. I have no idea what would happen if someone could guess it, but I think I'd be very impressed. 'X' is a placeholder. If anyone calls me anything else, it... hurts.

[For lack of a better word.]

But it meant I couldn't be influenced anymore. I can't begin to describe how that felt, Ilda, it was... it was like waking up for the first time, being alert for the first time. Coming out of a fog, seeing bright light up ahead, knowing immediately who you can trust and who you can't. There's... there's no feeling like it.

How is that even possible?

[ A name is just something you call people and things, right? Or maybe there's some truth to that bedtime story, after all. She tries to recall what her father's said about it, about names and their power... but there's just a little too much going on right now, so she concentrates instead on the conversation she's currently having.

Just in time to catch X tell her that it hurts to be called something else. She gasps in realization. ] So you mean... like a nickname— [ She flails. ] Oh no! Did I hurt you I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT YOU WHEN I CALLED YOU MISTER— [ She realizes what she's almost done and promptly covers her mouth, eyes wide and a little panicked. ]

[And there it is.

He exhales the brief flash of pain with Mister, but since Ilda cut the name off, it's nowhere near as bad. The exhale turns into a chuckle.]

It's okay. It's okay, Ilda, really. It's a pinch, nothing more. Intent matters; if you don't know what you're doing, it's not as bad as when someone deliberately gives me a name.

[X pauses, then tilts his head in concession.]

Having said that, it... does get a little worse each time, and now that you know, I'd appreciate it if you stopped?

[It sounds a lot more like a question than an order, or even any kind of a statement. X has lived without a name for years, but Ilda's only just discovering it; her feelings are a lot more important.]

[ Ilda doesn’t say anything, outright refuses to say anything, in the moments that follow, terrified at the thought of having hurt and possibly hurting someone she cares about deeply. X has become family to her, a second father, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her family. Not if she can help it.

She nods mutely at his request, her head bobbing a little too enthusiastically, her eyes a little too afraid.

When she finally speaks, it’s clear she’s chosen her words, her approach, with much care. ]

Okay, so... just so I understand this name deal because we don’t have anything like it where I’m from... So like, if I have a friend, let’s say her name is Ann, and that name gets erased, so I can’t call her Ann anymore, or any other name, because it’ll hurt her? Even accidentally? What if I say, “Hey gurl!” — would that hurt her? Basically all I’m allowed to call her is her, well... official nickname? Like A?

[X blinks. 'Hey gurl!' is not a phrase he's heard before, and at first, he doesn't know how to answer.

Maybe he should start with what he knows for sure.]

You wouldn't remember that her name is Ann. No one would, not even her. Everywhere it was ever written or recorded, it would get replaced with... yes, let's say A. And yes, calling her anything else, even accidentally, would hurt. The degree of pain is different, though, when it's accidental. It's not so bad.

[He exhales a short, self-deprecating laugh.]

You can probably guess that most people wouldn't choose to give up their name for no reason.

Possessive descriptions, though... I'm not sure. My children can call me their dad, and that works. My wife can call me her husband. You could probably call her your friend just fine. If -- well, if hey gurl is anything like that, then yes, it would probably work.

[ She lets out a whistle. ] That's a lot of power.

[ Names are so widespread and common and so easily taken for granted that the thought of anyone managing to just erase a name from existence is... admiringly terrifying. Especially when it comes with the repercussions X has mentioned. Well, disappearing along with the name would also be bad, but to live with pain even from the accidental mention of something that's supposed to be yours? Wow. ]

I understand now. I never really thought much about it before, but... yeah.

So, um, just to make it really clear... if I tell someone about Ann and call her "my friend," that's okay? But if I'm talking to Ann and call her "friend," it's not? Like if I run into her in the street and say, "Hey, friend!" or "Hey, you!" that will hurt her?

[ She's trying to think of all the possible ways she might accidentally call X with a name, so she can avoid them. Somehow. ]

[Again, X has to stop and think about it. He's never been interrogated about this before. That seems like an oversight on someone's part, now that he's wondering about it.]

I don't know.

[A sincere tone, and thoughtful, and a little surprised.]

Not... not 'hey you'. Someone somewhere has said that to me, I'm sure, and I don't remember it hurting. I think -- I don't know. Believe it or not, I don't usually give it this much thought. All I really know is that intent matters, and... and the act of naming. 'Hey friend' might work as well.

[He smiles slightly.]

Do you want me to finish the story?

[OPEN] Ilda’s April Catch-All

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